The story tries to convey the severity of death, so the characters would never really think to intentionally kill themselves to "exploit the system"... That being said, the fact that the MC became a hardened, action movie star so quickly is a bit BS, imo. Screams of lack of consideration from the author's side.
That is, the story plays off 'death' as something terrible to be avoided, the MC even anguishes over the death of his partner -- but it never personally affect the MC's mentality, it's as if the MC is outside of the problems the author is imposing on other characters.
I think it's a pretty good RP setting, though. personally, I would make each death have sanity-cost, and the gruesomeness of death, as well as who killed you, would affect the penalty (I.E: if you killed yourself, that's a massive hit to sanity you cannot take back).